Discussion as a Way of Teaching

Stephen Brookfield’s “Discussion as a Way of Teaching” provides instructors with many strategies to engage students in meaningful and productive discussions. One of the strategies that stood out to me was “snowballing.” This method allows students to formulate their own ideas and work in gradually larger groups to discuss those ideas. This method would allow more shy students to work their way up to sharing their ideas. Because they have already shared their ideas with one or two people, they might not feel as uncomfortable sharing their idea with half or all of the class. I imagine using an extended version of this in my classroom. Instead of making this a single day activity, I would spread it out over a few weeks and a handful of different reading materials. For the first few days of the school year, I would have students work to develop their own ideas, and reflect on them individually. After they have a good grasp on that, I would start having them share their ideas with a partner for a couple of weeks. I would gradually make groups larger as more students were comfortably discussing. I think this is especially important for earlier grade levels where students might not have experience in formal discussion, but it is also useful for any new group of students who may feel uncomfortable in a new setting.

As an instructor, it is also important to decide if you will be grading on students’ participation. The text suggests basing 20% of a student’s grade off of their participation. This is something that I will have to test out as a teacher on my own. As a student, I find it hard to gauge whether I am participating at an acceptable amount based on a specific instructor. The text is helpful because it gives specific advice on how to achieve a good grade in participation. However, in the classes I have been in, the participation grade was very subjective to the instructor. It could be helpful to keep a tally sheet during each discussion to make grading less subjective. Also, student self-reflection after each discussion could be a useful tool. If the student thinks they participated as much as they were able to (and they can support that), then it is likely that they deserve the grade that they have given themselves.